Series Information: Sandman

Neil Gaiman's world of The Sandman is pretty much our own; give or take a few ..slight differences.

The Endless are a brethren of originally seven entities that were "created" at the beggining of time. In their original form, they were: Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Destruction and Delight. At some time during the Middle Ages, Delight was transformed -for reasons unknown- into Delirium.
The raison d'etre of the Endless is evident from their names. To each is assigned a portfolio of tasks and a domain from which issues their authority.

The Sandman's world is a multi-verse: it is comprised of every world known to man through history and fiction (and a lot that are unknown), where the gods of the Olympic Pantheon reside right alongside those of the Egyptian, and the Norse, and the creatures of Faerie and the monsters of myth and legend are all too real. At the same time, it is our own world, banal and cruel and grey, where millions of people each try to lead their own special way in the world, in the tiny speck of time that is appointed every one of us. (For some, it may be a few more lines of ink in Destiny's ironbound tome, but, eventually Death will collect them all.)

The Endless stand in the bylines, unbeknownst to the mass of humanity, going about their tasks, and yet, even they -and gods- try to live their lives as well they can... (Destiny has an arboretum, and Death a studio, complete with goldfish and teddy bear on the couch; Destruction is -feebly- attempting to create art, while Dream, although rarely expressing it, has a need to be among people, and is more often than not on the rebound from his last crash-and-burn flame..)

A caveat for the unaware though: this is soul-searing literature... It is only words and pictures, but -as all good storytelling- it may force you to come to grips with aspects of yourself you didn't know (or didn't want to know) existed.